Australian Market Maintains Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is maintaining its early gains in mid-market trading on Monday, reversing the losses in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is moving a tad above the 8,500.00 level, with gains in gold miners and technology stocks as well as a mixed performance in most other sectors.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 88.70 points or 1.05 percent to 8,505.20, after touching a high of 8,516.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 96.10 points or 1.11 percent to 8,782.40. Australian stocks closed sharply lower on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group is edging up 0.3 percent and Rio Tinto is gaining almost 1 percent, while Fortescue is edging down 0.1 percent and Mineral Resources is losing almost 2 percent.

BHP Group has abandoned plans for a takeover of UK-listed miner Anglo American, confirming it is no longer considering a deal.

Oil stocks are mixed. Beach energy and Origin Energy are edging up 0.3 to 0.4 percent each, while Santos and Woodside Energy are losing more than 1 percent each. Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is gaining more than 1 percent, Zip is adding 2.5 percent, Appen is up 1.5 percent, WiseTech Global is advancing more than 4 percent and Xero is rising almost 2 percent.

Gold miners are higher. Evolution Mining, Newmont and Northern Star Resources are adding almost 2 percent each, while Resolute Mining is advancing more than 3 percent and Genesis Minerals is gaining more than 2 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are gaining almost 1 percent each, while ANZ Banking is edging up 0.1 percent. National Australia Bank is flat.

In other news, shares in Monash IVF are skyrocketing almost 37 percent after rejected an unsolicited 80 cent per share takeover proposal from a consortium led by Genesis Capital and Soul Patts.

Shares in Qube are soaring more than 19 percent after the logistics business received a $5.20 per share offer from Macquarie Asset Management that valued the company at $11.6 billion.

Shares in Pro Medicus are surging almost 5 percent following the announcement of three significant contract wins in the US, adding a combined minimum value of $29 million.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.645 on Monday.